Online Document Printing – What’s it all about?
Online document printing has been around for over a decade
now but it is only just beginning to build up the growth momentum seen with
some of the other printed products being sold online – such as greetings cards
or business cards.
New customer take up for the production of manuals,
presentations, price lists, tenders or reports at Direct2Print has increased by
over 35% this year alone.
Direct2Print introduced online document printing to the UK
over 10 years ago based upon a business model that was operating in the United
States.
The core product is to have documents printed on production
quality machines, with quality finishes and binding, delivered when and where
you needed – the service was boosted by the developments in broadband
communications, PDF software and the very high cost of toners and inks for
smaller office and home printers.
Quality and cost were the two particular issues that were
improved by online ordering of documents. Having a single supplier meant that
documents presented in different parts of the country were offered consistency of
presentation and cost control. There
were frequent examples of price differences of more than 50% on the same job
depending upon location.
Delivery was often quick but the pressures are now for
ever-shorter deadlines.Direct2Print still offers a 6 working hour delivery
option – often quicker than many printers and copy shops can respond with a
quotation or a small home printer can print a complete memory and ink-intensive
PowerPoint presentation.
With real-time pricing the order process became simple and
easy – after entering a small number of prompted variables a customer could hit
the “Send” button and within 24 hours get some pretty impressive documents. Usually with free delivery and at half the
cost of what they would have previously paid!
In short the service was faster, more convenient, offered
better quality at a better price.
Yet it has taken ten years to gain popularity?
There are many other reasons. We are all more confident and comfortable
with online purchasing but there must also be other factors involved. Search engines are now the prime source of
finding a supplier for any urgent job – and printing is no different to any
other trade. Much of the work that had
previously gone local now goes online.
This trend is accelerating with mobile and tablet device users and
developments such as QR code scanning.
The order process has become more reliable. The web site was rebuilt and upgraded in 2011
to accommodate technological developments.
Documents are now distributed around the world within a matter of
days.
There are also no verbal
misunderstandings – so you don’t end up with 13 documents rather than 30! Orders are quality checked at every stage to
ensure there are no errors – and each order is covered by a total quality
guarantee.
But perhaps the main reason is the pressures on each and
every one of us. Time is becoming an
even more precious commodity. So the
thought of driving to a printer’s premises on increasingly congested roads,
finding a parking space, waiting for the printing and then driving back to the
office is not as attractive of a few clicks of a mouse and sitting back and waiting
for the courier delivery.
You can now impress without the stress!
About Direct2Print
(www.direct2print.net) – Direct2Print provides a specialist online document and
digital print service from a production site strategically based in the middle
of the UK near Birmingham. It prints,
binds and delivers documents for companies and public bodies of all sizes –
from 6 working hours to 3 working days.
This year documents have been distributed to the United State, Brazil,
China, Hong Kong and the Middle East.
For media relations contact Chris Jepson (Managing Director) on 0800
0346 007.
